Friday, April 30, 2010

Rambling on...

Mayrin Villanueva
  • These Wise County boys found a new archery treat when the banks of Big Sandy flooded. Looks like fun to me...

  • It’s official, we now have an organized grammar police! Be prepared to face judgment if you butcher the king’s english.

  • If you wanted to get rid of your top employee, would you pay him $150,000 to resign? Would it help if you paid him with other people’s money? Boyd ISD did just that…

  • Decatur needs another pharmacy so the EDC gave them $19,000 to help get their building space prepped. Seems fair to all the other pharmacies in town, don’t you think?

  • ‘Yesterday [April 28] police in riot gear were dispatched to a wholly-peaceful TEA Party event at Quincy, Illinois as snipers observed old ladies with cutesy protest signs through their rifle scopes... and the Secret Service insisted on trucking-in the riot squad over the protests of local police who felt there was no threat whatsoever.’

    Is the President afraid or is this just intimidation?
  • 'Looking to reduce his carbon footprint, Al Gore and wife buy $9 million home in California.

    This man could quite possibly be the biggest fraud who ever lived... 6 fireplaces, 5 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms, and he will take a private jet to get there...'



6 comments:

RPM said...

Hate to break it to you, but technically it's the Queen's english.

Anonymous said...

And, right behind the EDC is the City Council offering a tax abatement for the first few years.
I HATE EDC's.

Anonymous said...

I don't know whose English it is or wtf the EDC is doing....... But your Girl of The Day gave me wood down here in Poolville.

Anonymous said...

Alvord did the same thing. Paid that crook John Trice also about the same amount. His ass should have been put in jail fired and no money given to him. He milked money from AISD for years. Paying employees that did not exist.

an Donalbane said...

I was on the EDB of my town for 10 years, chaired it two different terms.

After 10 years, in the hallowed words of Matt Foley, we really pretty much had 'jack squat' to show for it.

We did some surveys, possibly shaped some of the flavor and tenor of the retail that located here, but we were never successful in creating an industrial park (later efforts refocused it as a 'technology' park). Part of that had to do with landowners who would not cooperate with one another, but in a free market, it's their perogative.

Long story short, my take in hindsight is that EDCs piss off more money wining and dining and prostituting their towns than is ever seen in increased tax revenues, whether in the form of real property, BPP, or sales taxes.

If I made any contribution to policy in those days, it was in making sure our abatement programs were 'stepped', started with a 50% abatement (not 100%) to help with startup/relo expenses, and after the 5th year, we had ourselves a full-fare taxpayer. I thought it was a swell plan, to incrementally diminish the abatement annually, reducing the degree to which a large company could yank us around as the sunset of the abatement neared - an on-ramp to being a productive taxpayer. And it would have been, if anyone had ever used the program.

Of course, it always chapped me that we would've been willing to open our legs for new businesses, but the only thing being given to existing businesses (who'd already invested in our town) was more red tape in the form of sign ordinances, setbacks, parking & landscape requirements that often left business owners with a postage stamp size footprint with which to try to do something productive.

I'm glad to be done with all that...

Anonymous said...

Still got wood just south of you. Love the inside-side boob action.... Big Time.